Unexpected Comfort
by 8spunkangel8
Summary: Pre-Twilight; Edward is feeling lonely, doubting that he'll ever find mate. Rosalie of all people ends up comforting him. It's just a fluffy one-shot showing a different side of Rosalie and their bro/sis relationship.


**I had this idea when I saw a ring box sitting on my dresser and began to think about Bella's engagement ring. I asked myself, "What did Edward do with it before Bella came along?" I mean, he must have had it for a long time. And when did he get it? Just stuff like that. Anyway, this is what came out of it. I also wanted to do something a little more with Rosalie and show a different side of her. I thought that'd be fun. :) Enjoy and don't hesitate to review!**

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_EPOV_

_1987_

Perhaps my negative mood had something to do with the music I had blaring in my ears as I was lying on the couch in my room. It wasn't particularly depressing, nor was it angry. It was a love song. Some days – much like today – it was difficult to be very cheerful when I was the only one alone in a house full of happily married couples. I searched for their thoughts. As usual, Emmett and Rosalie were caught up in their own little world, the only two occupants being themselves. Alice and Jasper were locked away in their room, expressing their love for each other quite passionately – I blocked them out as fast as I could. Esme and Carlisle were simply discussing how their days had gone in such a way that let you catch just a small glimpse of what they truly felt for each other. You could hear it in the tone of their voices, the words they said. In my eyes, they were having the most intimate moment of all three. That was what I believed I was missing out on the most. A person you could talk with about anything, a person whom you could trust, who you know wouldn't judge you, no matter what your situation may be. Of course I could talk with my family, especially Carlisle. I knew they loved me very much. It just wasn't the same as the exchange between Esme and Carlisle, though.

It was times like these that I wondered if I would ever find a mate – no, a wife. The word "mate" sounded much too animalistic to describe what I was yearning for at that moment. I had been the lone wolf in our household ever since Emmett joined us fifty years ago. When Alice and Jasper had come to live with us in 1950, it had only added to the pressure. Don't get me wrong, I love them all very much; it was just hard sometimes. I knew they would never say it out loud out of respect for me – except maybe Emmett, although only in a teasing manner – but I heard in their thoughts all the time their wondering about my love life just as I was doing now. It was not very comforting, as you can imagine. I got through, though, suppressing my loneliness as best I could so as to not start something. Jasper would feel it and tell Alice, who would tell Esme, who would tell Carlisle, and it would strike up this huge stink that I just didn't want to go through again. Back in the sixties, that had happened, and Alice had decided she was going to make it her life-long goal to find me a woman. That was not fun. Only after countless disastrous visits from female vampires and numerous heated discussions with the match-maker in question did she finally give it a rest and let me have my peace. I had explained to her that the right woman will come when she comes. That was not something I wanted to go through again.

My mother, my human mother, certainly believed I would find someone. Much to my chagrin, she had insisted on departing all the wisdom she had attained in her regretfully short but full lifetime onto me before her inevitable demise. She spoke to me of many things on our deathbeds, particularly my future. I ran the moment when she expressed her expectations for my love life through my head once again, as I had many times before.

_September, 1918_

"_Edward," Mother said to me from the bed beside my own. I rolled my head to the side in order to see her._

"_Yes?" I choked out. I was surprised she could speak so smoothly – she was fading faster than me._

"_I have expressed before my expectations for your survival."_

"_You believe I'll live." She did. That's what she said anyway._

"_I do. However, I don't believe the same for me." I didn't either, but I tried reassuring her anyway._

"_Of course you will, Mother! Don't you dare say things like that!"_

"_Thank you for humoring me, Edward, but I will have to face it at some point. What I'm getting at, Edward, is that since you will live" – somehow I doubted that – "you will surely find someone whom to call your wife. Because I, on the other hand, will not survive, I would love for you to have this and give it to the fortunate young lady." She tried her best to smile before starting to reach for the ring on her left hand._

"_Oh, Mother, no," I protested._

"_Edward," she said firmly, "I am a dying woman. I probably only have a single day left. Please let me have this." How could I say no when she used words such as that? She had guilt-tripped me. I could now tell this was very important to her, for she never used something like that to get what she wanted._

_I simply nodded. My mother shakily, sickly slipped her wedding ring off her pale, slender finger and reached out for me. I stretched my arm over to her, and using all her strength, she placed the beautiful ring in my hand and closed my fingers over it. We stayed like that for a while, holding each other's hands, the ring that meant so much to my mother in the middle. I could feel a lump forming in my throat and quickly choked it down._

I still had the ring, of course I did. I sat up and reached behind me to the bedside table that was instead beside a couch. Opening the small drawer at the top, I felt around for the case I had found for it after I was changed. The soft velvet brushed under my fingers, and I brought it out. For a moment, I just sat and looked at the jet-black case, running my thumb over it ever so lightly, felling the softness of it. Finally I opened the case and stared once again at the ring my mother had worn so long ago. Its face was an oval, with slanting rows of sparkling diamonds. I picked it up from its tiny slit in the case where the gold band went. I moved it ever so slightly so it would shimmer in the fading light coming from my window. Surely she would love it, whoever she may be, for I certainly did. I had never shown it to any of my family members, except Carlisle. I doubted they even knew I had it. I slipped the ring back into its place in the small box. For a few minutes more I simply sat and stared at it.

I must have been pretty deep in thought, for I didn't notice the person coming to my room until the door opened. My head shot up as I snapped the case shut automatically and guarded it between both my hands.

"What do you have there?" Rosalie asked from the doorway. She started her way over to me when I didn't answer. Her hands behind her back, she attempted to see what I was hiding. Honestly, I don't know why I was hiding it. Maybe it was because it was very personal and therefore not something I wanted to share with Rosalie of all people. She gasped. "Is that some sort of jewelry?" She peeped closer as I brought the ring closer to my chest in order to guard it better. She stopped looking at my hands and instead looked up at my face. A concerned expression took over her curious one. I could see myself in her thoughts and saw the reason for her concern. I looked thoroughly depressed. I would be concerned too. "What's wrong?" To be honest, I was surprised to hear that question coming from her. She wasn't much of a sympathizer. I stayed silent. Sitting on the couch next to me, she said, "Oh, come on. I know I'm probably not your first choice for a confidant, but I'm feeling sappy today. Talk to me." I sighed, and after much deliberation, showed her the box. "Oh," she said, "Where did you get that?"

"I found it," I said, not looking at her.

"You just found a random ring? And I know there's something in there. If not, you wouldn't be protecting it so much."

"No. I found the box." I rubbed my thumb over the velvet some more.

"Alright, look, either tell me or not, but I'm not going to sit here, having to rip the words from your mouth. I'm completely open to you spilling your guts to me because I'm here for you, but I'm also open to leaving if you really don't want me here." I looked up at her. She just described her exact expression. Her eyes were kind, but firm. I sighed, surprised that I actually did want her here. I suppose at that point I was willing to be comforted by just about anybody. Hesitantly, I turned the case toward her and slowly opened it. She gasped once again. She seemed to be gasping a lot.

"It's beautiful," she breathed. She started reaching for it, and I snapped it shut before she could wrap her fingers around it. She looked surprised, then irritated.

"I'm sorry," I said. I didn't know what came over me. I suppose I was so used to guarding and protecting it, I didn't want anybody else to have the opportunity to get the full effect of my mother's ring. Rosalie cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms. I put the box back in the drawer and sheepishly looked over at my sister from under my eyelashes. She sighed and uncrossed her arms.

"I guess I understand." She had surprised me yet again. "I can see that it's very special to you, and I shouldn't have tried to touch it. Kind of like a display at a museum, I guess." Her little moment with Emmett must have really been something if it had brightened her mood that much. I didn't push it. "Where did you get the ring? Notice how I specified this time." If I wasn't so down, I would have laughed.

"It was my mother's. She gave it to me on her deathbed."

"Oh."

I paused before continuing. "She believed more than anyone else that I would survive, and told me that when I found a suitable woman to be my wife, that was to be her wedding ring."

"I see," Rosalie said. "You're lonely."

"Shh!" I hushed her, "Alice might hear!"

She laughed; it sounded like bells ringing. "I remember that. Those were good times."

"They most certainly were not," I countered. Never again did I wish to relive those horrible, embarrassing moments. I shuddered, and she laughed again.

She became serious and said, "I believed you when you said the right girl-"

"Woman," I corrected.

"-would come along when the time is right."

"I believed that too. Now I'm not so sure." She put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"She'll come, Edward. I know she will." I stared at the floor. "When I found out that Carlisle had intended for me to become your mate, honestly, I had mixed feelings. Even though I personally don't feel for you that way, there's no denying that you are quite the catch."

"This is not a self-esteem issue, Rosalie." She was silent for a moment, and I was afraid that I had offended her.

"I know," she finally said quietly. "But what else can I say? Sure, I don't know when or how she'll come, but I know she will. I don't know what she'll be like, but I know she'll be wonderful. I know she's out there, somewhere waiting to be with you, just like you're waiting to be with her. I don't have all the answers, Edward, as much as I wish I did, but this is one answer that I'm sure of. You are too good to not have someone out there who was made especially for you. Any day now, she'll come knocking on our door, and Cupid will bite you in the butt. Of that, I am 100% positive." I looked up at her and searched her thoughts for any hint of doubt. There were none. I began to consider that maybe she was right. Just because I hadn't met her yet didn't mean she wasn't out there.

"Of all the people in the world I would think could reassure as well as you just did, you would be pretty far down the list. But thank you. Although you've surprised me numerous times in this single conversation, you have nonetheless comforted me more than I ever thought possible of you."

She laughed. "You're welcome. Don't come crawling to me for anything else, though. I'm just feeling especially nice today." She smiled as I laughed. She slid her hand from my shoulder. "I was coming up here in the first place to tell you that Alice says there's going to be a thunderstorm. Are you up for some baseball?" She gave a competitive grin, as did I.


End file.
